Technical Field
The present invention relates to a biosensor chip that is used in the detection of bacteria, viruses, and so forth that can cause a variety of infectious diseases, and to a biosensor device equipped with this chip.
Description of the Related Art
In the past, biosensor chips of this type have been used in devices that perform nucleic acid amplification reaction, for example, in the analysis of objects included in a specimen.
A conventional biosensor chip internally comprised a main body case having a diluent chamber and a measurement chamber connected via a first channel to this diluent chamber, an inlet provided to a portion of this main body case corresponding to the diluent chamber, and a sealing member for sealing this inlet. The measurement chamber had a branching chamber component that was connected to the diluent chamber via the first channel, and a plurality of individual measurement components connected to this branching chamber component via second channels. Individual reagents were provided to the individual measurement components (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2010-519892, for example).
With the prior art discussed above, an example of biological information is the identification of the presence or type of a virus. In the case of the common cold, for example, the strain (that is, the form of the virus) changes every year. To detect that virus, it is necessary to house individual reagents for detecting the virus in individual measurement components, to house a different individual reagent for each individual measurement component, and to combine a plurality of types of individual reagents.
However, there are hundreds of individual reagents corresponding to viruses that must be combined in a plurality of types for the purpose of detection, and these combinations have to be taken into account and numerous biosensor chips prepared. Accordingly, the management of so many biosensor chips in which individual reagents of different types are combined entailed a tremendous expense, and this drove up the cost.
Moreover, with a conventional configuration, when individual reagents of different types were applied and dried under the same environment, there was the risk that cross contamination between the individual reagents would occur, and this could lead to decreased measurement accuracy.
In view of this, it is an object of the present invention to prevent a decrease in measurement accuracy caused by contamination, and to thereby lower the cost.